


Quiet Questions of My Youth

by wiltedneck



Category: Original Work
Genre: Brother-Sister Relationships, Dysfunctional Family, Lack of Communication, Mental Anguish, Parent-Child Relationship, Quiet, Silence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-08
Updated: 2014-12-08
Packaged: 2018-02-28 15:40:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2737892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wiltedneck/pseuds/wiltedneck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just some things I didn't realize weren't universal experiences in youth for other kids. I don't feel as if my parents abused us... but when it's written this way, people seem to think they may've. All I know is that the silence/lack of communication between us was always a source of pain and confusion for me. I didn't realize that my brother may've been close to death when in the hospital, or that my father couldn't move for a few weeks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Quiet Questions of My Youth

Remember how Alex’s appendix

burst, as he twisted, paddle limp

in the water? It was _not that far upstream_ , the

pier _._

_is it just me, or is it too quiet in here?_

 

 

Or the weeks when Dad slept downstairs

because lupus gnawed his joints

away? I was _too young_ and

yet…

_is it just me, or is it too quiet_

_in here?_

Mom told us to ignore her parents on every

holiday drive home.

We’d read, overheads keeping us zoned,

lit.

_is it just me, or is it_

_too quiet_

_in here?_

And I, age four, autodialed

the police. I hid in the closet,

flattened, eye to the crack praying for the

bust.

_is it just_

_me, or is it_

_too quiet_

_in here?_

**Author's Note:**

> This poem was modeled after a really cool form I studied in Longenbach's "The Art of the Poetic Line" -- I attempted to use sprung rhythm within the main stanzas, but I'm not sure how successfully it came across.


End file.
